767: Leaked Tea Technology
Rose Witch and her group walked in front of the wizard town. She wore a pink wizard robe, her hair tied in twin ponytails, topped with a pink-themed wizard hat. Beside her, an elderly Third Ring Wizard with a white beard proactively held a Third Ring Magic item wizard umbrella, produced by the Rose Council, for her.
Rose Witch treated that wizard umbrella as if it were a mere sunshade.
Behind her were five students, all her personal disciples, and following on her left was a young witch—Rose Tacitus.
Today, Rose Tacitus was still wearing a black wizard robe that looked both dangerous and glamorous. A Black Demon God Rose rested on her shoulder, but her dress had undergone different changes; the fabric seemed to possess the natural luster of a living plant.
It was clearly a special material woven by a Magic Weaver, yet it had the color of a plant, the fragrance of a rose, and even a unique fruity aroma.
Locke was stunned for a moment. As he walked out of the house and stood on the street of the wizard town with his senior brothers, looking over at Witch Rosetta, three words suddenly popped into his mind—'plastic flower'!
Locke quickly used the water gourd system to look up free articles for mainstream Second Ring Wizards of the Rose Council. As a Second Ring Wizard now, he had the authority.
Thus, he noticed the three pillar disciplines of the Rose Council—Rose Floriography, Botany, and Textile Studies.
Among them, Botany and Textile Studies were secondary disciplines, while Rose Floriography was a tertiary discipline, meaning Rose Floriography had not even produced a root realm.
However, from their free literature, Locke noticed a blind spot he had previously overlooked.
Yes, the Rose Council had developed something similar to the Doomsday Flower of the Heliotos Imperial Court, which had destroyed King Otto seventy thousand years ago.
plastic flowers!
He should have thought of it sooner.
Locke looked at an article he found by a Second Ring Floramancer of the Rose Council titled "Constructing Rose-type Magic Plant Microstructures via Shuttleless Spinning: Achieving the Ever-blooming Form of Flowers."
Locke said, "That's right. The Rose Council has a large number of alchemists focused on Textile Studies, as well as many Breeders and Botanical Wizards. Coupled with Floriography, which centers on flower arrangement... then using Textile Studies to manufacture plastic flowers, or some kind of textile faux flowers, was almost inevitable."
"What could be more in line with a Floramancer's love for flower-type Magic Plants than a fake flower that never changes its form and doesn't require mastering extensive professional breeding knowledge?"
Locke snapped back to reality and looked at Witch Rosetta. For the Rose Council, this direction should still be quite cutting-edge—something they were exploring to see if it could be developed further.
At this moment, Locke noticed that while he was observing Witch Rosetta, that beautiful yet dangerous-looking witch was also observing him.
Witch Rosetta said to the Rose Witch beside her, "Is that my opponent? Great-grandmother?"
"He looks somewhat handsome."
Rose Witch smiled and said, "Presumably. It's my first time seeing him too. Hmm, there's a sense of familiarity."
A look of contemplation appeared in her eyes as if she had thought of something.
"This temperament... I feel like I've encountered it somewhere once before."
Rose Witch walked forward normally but was blocked by an invisible barrier.
She immediately cast aside her distracting thoughts, her gaze turning sharp as she looked toward the edge of the wizard town. On the ground at the town's edge, peach trees suddenly sprouted one after another.
Because of the sparse peach forest formed by these trees, Rose Witch and her students were unable to proceed.
Rose Witch's eyes flickered.
"Katya, today is a great day to celebrate your student becoming a Second Ring Wizard. You and I are friends, so even though you didn't invite me, I've come unbidden."
"After all, you've invited big shots from more than half of the Cloud Marsh. How could you not invite me?"
"But putting me on the blacklist of the Peach Forest Curse—what is the meaning of this?"
Across the entire central street of the wizard town, Rose Witch faced Witch Catherine from a distance. "Could it be that you and I are enemies?"
Witch Catherine sat in the central plaza of the wizard town. The long table she occupied was filled with high-ranking and powerful people from the Cloud Marsh—either directors from the White Wizard Association, heads of Key Laboratories from various academies, or administrative leaders.
Even those at the end of the long table were Deans of medium-to-large-scale academies.
Seeing this scene, the crowd either showed expressions of awkwardness or curiosity.
These two had been enemies since they first met as ordinary Third Ring Wizards.
The two of them had frequently snatched projects from each other. Now, it was heard that their Ten-Person Project projects were in a state of mutual competition, and their key single projects were also competing.
Although this competition wasn't a life-or-death struggle, whoever lost would lose a relative amount of support.
Furthermore, their research had reached a point where the daily expenditure was an astronomical figure—one that would scare an ordinary wizard to death.
Therefore, whether they could obtain the full support of the Cloud Marshland Council had become a very important matter.
Facing Rose Witch's question, Witch Catherine was indifferent.
"Are we not enemies?"
As soon as these words were spoken, all the High-Ring Wizards and influential wizards at the banquet fell silent, fearing that making even a slight sound or saying the wrong thing would result in them being inexplicably dragged into an academic conflict.
The Director of the Organization Department of the White Wizard Association, a Fourth Ring Wizard, had a smile on his face.
The other two directors from the White Wizard Association's Board of Directors who were present were also happy to see this play out.
These two were the Director of the Sacred Department and the Director of the Demon Hunting Department, both of whom headed powerful departments within the local White Wizard Association.
A Wizard Land generally has only 9 to 15 directors.
The three directors present here represented some of the most important departments in the White Wizard Association.
However, the values of the Cloud Marsh prioritized performance, challenging superiors, and mutual competition. Thus, the three directors had no intention of mediating the minor friction between the Chief Wizard Mentors of the two top wizard academies.
On the contrary, the more they competed, the better.
The finances of a local White Wizard Association were limited. Much of the Cloud Marsh's budget had to be handed directly to the Star Domain Sea for coordination by the Eastern Border Region level White Wizard Association. Thus, they could not simultaneously provide full support to two Throne Wizards who both wanted to break through to become Fourth Ring Wizards.
They could only choose the better of the two.
Of course, they couldn't completely abandon the other one either, because once a Throne Wizard left this Wizard Land, it would be a massive loss for the region.
A Throne Wizard possessed wisdom and power and carried various responsibilities; their departure would have significant repercussions.
At the level of a Throne Wizard, their movements were certainly not just personal—they represented the movement of an entire Academic Lineage!
Therefore, the White Wizard Association would still support the Throne Wizard who lost the competition, just not with their full effort.
Outside the wizard town, Rose Witch frowned. She clearly hadn't expected Witch Catherine to dare admit publicly that they were enemies, leaving not even a shred of pretense.
In the next moment, Witch Catherine said, "I'm joking, Anna. If others don't know, don't I? You and I have always been the best of friends—now, in the past, and in the future."
Rose Witch gave a cold snort. "Then lift the Peach Forest Curse!"
Witch Catherine said, "No. The Peach Forest Curse is the protective wizard formation of Golden Crown Mountain, passed down for a thousand years."
"The Peach Forest Curse prevents annoying wizards from approaching. So, I can't lift it."
A chill flashed in Rose Witch's eyes, and suddenly, a rain of rose petals began to fall from the sky over the wizard town.
Rose Witch's jade-like hands moved as if she were planting cuttings; the rain of rose petals in the sky flowed according to a certain rhythm.
Locke looked up, feeling that as a Third Ring Wizard of Textile Studies and Botany, the rose rain Rose Witch summoned was extraordinary. The very direction the petal rain flowed seemed to follow the path of a needle and thread.
'It's very much like New Textile Studies.'
Locke suddenly realized.
'That's right, the two schools of Textile Studies only recently split. There was originally a massive amount of overlapping content. As a Third Ring Throne Wizard, when Rose Witch combines textile magic and botanical magic, the magic she uses will naturally possess characteristics of New Textile Studies.'
'It feels familiar to me. And it's even more powerful.'
The descending rose rain looked like a normal rainfall, but the interweaving of the rain was the interweaving of plane power. As countless petals fell, it was as if a whole world was descending.
The rain of that world was constantly interlacing, shuttles flowing, using petals to perform Textile Studies magic.
One peach tree after another in the forest withered and failed, and one after another, the peach trees at the edge of the wizard town moved aside automatically.
Witch Catherine did not want to give Rose Witch an opportunity to show off the Rose Council's magic in front of everyone. Thus, she waved her hand, and just as the conflict between the Peach Forest Curse and Rose Witch's spell was about to reach its peak, she suddenly deactivated the Peach Forest Curse.
Instantly, all the peach trees shrouding the wizard town reverted from mature trees into tender saplings, finally turning into seeds that automatically buried themselves in the soil and vanished.
Seeing that Witch Catherine had deactivated the Peach Forest Curse before its true power was even activated, Rose Witch gritted her teeth in anger. She stood in place, not moving for a long time.
She was afraid others would see her lose her composure.
'Damned Yekaterina.'
Rose Witch thought to herself:'She's been like this since the old days, always so cunning, never giving me a chance to display my magic in front of everyone.'
On the other side, Witch Catherine was all smiles.
'Anna wanted to cause trouble for me and show off at my banquet. I won't let her succeed.'
'A guest is a guest. There's no need for me to compete with her in magic.'
'But Anna is getting better and better at combining Textile Studies and Botany. That spell just now was indeed decent.'
Rose Witch led her six students directly toward the central plaza of the wizard town. She sat across the long table and had her students pick empty seats to sit in.
At that time, Eldest Senior Brother Georta said to Locke and the others, "Let's go. Rose Witch is here to cause trouble again. We must rush over; don't let Teacher face them alone."
The few of them quickly returned to the central plaza of the wizard town.
At this moment, Witch Catherine was actually surrounded by many wizards from Golden Crown Mountain—some were from the Academic Committee, and some were students she had trained within the teaching system of Golden Crown Mountain.
Rose Witch and Witch Catherine were at loggerheads. When the enemies met, their eyes immediately sparked.
Rose Witch's eyes were about to spit fire when she thought about how many projects the other had snatched from her and her students.
And Witch Catherine was also annoyed when she thought about how many of her good things the other had messed up.
However, neither of them showed any anger on their faces. They simply looked at each other with smiles in their eyes, not letting things become unpleasant on the surface.
Witch Catherine said to the leader of Group 1 beside her, Wizard Commodus, "Have your student pour a cup of our Golden Crown Mountain specialty, [Yun Lake Biluo], for the 11th generation Rose Witch of the Rose Council."
Rose Witch laughed.
"No need. I brought better tea myself this time. Have you forgotten? Our Rose Council also produces tea, and it's even better—we produce flower tea."
At the mention of this, the atmosphere at the long table became even more bizarre.
As an invited wizard from the Senate, the old wizard Fischer couldn't keep his cool upon hearing this.
"Lord Rose Throne, the Rose Council stole a massive amount of mature tea-making technology from our Golden Crown Mountain and Lu Xu Bridge in the past. Although this has nothing to do with you personally."
"That was done by the 7th generation Rose Witch. But my Golden Crown Mountain has not forgotten that searing pain to this day. For some people to act as Plant Hunters even against other wizard universities in the same Wizard Land is quite a tale."
"11th generation Rose Witch, your university's Plant Hunters are notorious. But I hear you're not much better; you recently stole one of our Sun Ring Wizards."
"Hahaha... fellow wizards, you'd better be careful. In the future, when recruiting wizard mentors, do your background checks well. Don't ever hire a disciple of the Rose Throne again."
Rose Witch herself showed no sign of anger. She simply smiled and shook her head, her ponytails swaying.
Her eldest disciple, however, showed a look of fury and was about to speak.
Rose Witch suddenly raised her right hand.
"No need for nonsense. Katya, I heard you have a closed-door disciple who became a Second Ring Wizard, and he's the same age as my granddaughter from the Tacitus Family."
"So, I specially brought my granddaughter here to exchange pointers with your student."
Witch Catherine immediately understood her meaning.
"How shall they exchange pointers?"
Rose Witch said, "Rose."
Witch Rosetta stepped out from beside Rose Witch, gave a salute to Witch Catherine, and then looked at Locke. "Our mentors are friends, and you and I are about the same age, so we can be considered of the same generation."
"Therefore, I wish to exchange pointers with you. I recently wove a piece of cloth. I heard you received the inheritance of the Sacred Dragon, and the Peach Arc Thorn Arrow is one of the research directions of the Red Dragon Throne."
"I want you to shoot down this piece of cloth of mine. If you can do it, then I lose. Otherwise..."
Locke looked at Witch Catherine, who nodded slightly.
Under Witch Rosetta's expectant gaze, Locke stepped forward and said, "Exchange pointers? Sure. But that's too boring without a wager. We White Wizards don't do things that don't make money, so if there's no profit involved, I'm not interested."
Witch Catherine let out a small smile.
Rose Witch was slightly stunned. In the Rose Council, she would never tolerate a student with such a personality.
After all, she had seen Witch Catherine nod, letting Locke accept the challenge.
Yet, Locke didn't accept immediately; instead, he proposed a wager before the exchange could take place.
What if her side refused?
Interesting.